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Ukraine Business News, Tuesday, March 10
- Prosecutor General Sacked
- Markets Sell Ukraine
- Facing Skeptics, PM Shmygal Vows to Work With IMF
- Analysts Forecast Central Bank Will Cut Key Rate Next Week
- Zelenskiy in His Own Words on Reasons for the Purge
Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka was sacked in a Rada vote last night, the latest casualty in a government purge that leaves analysts questioning Ukraine’s free market momentum. Ryaboshapka, a former official at Transparency International, was supported by Western governments for his efforts clean up Ukraine’s judiciary. Ruling party MP’s complained he did not indict former President Poroshenko. Ruling party MP’s propose one of their own: Serhii Ionushas, an MP who did intellectual property work for President Zelenskiy’s TV studio.
The cabinet overhaul prompted Morgan Stanley to cut Ukraine’s hard-currency debt to ‘dislike’, strategists Alina Slyusarchuk and Simon Waever wrote Thursday morning in an emailed report. By the end of the day, Ukraine’s dollar-denominated sovereign bonds had suffered a second day of sharp declines. The 2032 bond fell 3.76 cents in the dollar to 105.51 cents, according to Refinitiv. Both the 2027 and 2028 issues lost more than two cents as well. Many bonds traded at multi-month lows.
Foreign holdings of government hryvnia bonds fell this week by 2%, to about 124.4 billion hryvnia, or $5 billion, reports the National Bank of Ukraine. Although foreign holdings of the bonds are up by 7.3% this year, growth stopped in mid-February.
Opinion roundups – on Bloomberg and elsewhere – were generally skeptical Thursday.
Ukraine Business News, Tuesday, March 3
- Coronavirus hits Italy Travel, Corn Prices
- Fast Track Visas for IT Workers
- UZ to Build EU Gauge Tracks
- Poll: Most Ukrainians Oppose Farm Land Market
- Ukrspyrt Alcohol Sales up 62%
- New Eco-Platform to Protect
In a slap to Italy, Ukrainians should refrain from traveling to EU countries with confirmed cases of coronavirus transmission, Deputy Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko said Thursday. Italy has 650 confirmed cases, largely in Milan’s Lombardy region, where schools and movie theaters are closed, and in Venice, where carnival has been cancelled. UIA has flights from Boryspil to both cities. Lyashko said: “While the new coronavirus spreads in the EU, people should refrain from traveling to countries where cases of internal transmission have been confirmed in order to protect their health and prevent the coronavirus spread from entering Ukraine.”
Ukraine has no direct flights to the four other centers of the virus: China, Iran, Japan and South Korea. At Boryspil and other airports, health workers are checking 75,000 travelers arriving on international flights every day, Lyashko said.
Coronavirus is eroding the price of Ukrainian corn as demand declines in China, Liga Business reports. Yesterday, Timofey Milovanov, Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, predicted there would be “little impact” on Ukraine’s economy.
Ukraine will establish a special migration system for highly qualified IT specialists, says Alexander Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation. Qualified newcomers will find it easier to obtain a permanent residence permit and to apply for a work permit which grants expats rights similar to those of Ukrainians. As Ukraine’s IT companies grapple with a labor shortage, they recruit from Belarus, Moldova and Kazakhstan.
Of the world’s top 100 IT outsourcing service companies, 21 are either Ukrainian companies or have large offices in Ukraine, according to the New York-based International Association of Outsourcing Professionals. Last year, 18 Ukrainian companies made the list.